Portland is known as one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the country. The town pioneered the mass adoption of dedicated bicycle lanes throughout the urban area which accelerated the use of the bike as a regular means of transportation by making it safer and more comfortable for bicyclists to share the roads with automobiles. Now, a new exhibit at the Portland Art Museum is showing off a number of bicycle designs in an attempt to elevate bicycle design to somewhere near where automobile design has been for some time.
The exhibit is known as Cyclepedia and it showcases some impressive museum exhibit design, including nearly 50 distinct bicycle designs that were chosen for their importance in the development of bicycle design throughout history. But, although the wide range of bicycles are certainly impressive, the exhibit design is just as interesting. The exhibit includes bicycles of all different kinds, including racing, mountain, single speed, touring, tandem, urban, folding, cargo, children’s bikes and some just downright strange models.
The museum exhibit design makes use of supplementary and complementary materials to increase the depth of the experience and provide for a more engaging exhibit. This includes a companion pamphlet and an iPhone/iPad app. The app has already been getting rave reviews on the App Store and the companion booklet has been described as having some of the most impressive shots of bicycle design that has ever been published. Design begets design as both the bicycles on display and the museum exhibit design which they represent are stunning and provocative.
Portland has been an oasis for bicyclists for the past 20 years and so it is only fitting that an exhibit of this caliber be in the Portland Art Museum, which has recently featured a number of other incredible exhibits showcasing impressive exhibit design, including an exhibit featuring Chinese designers and an exhibit spotlighting exceptional automobile design throughout the ages.